ARTICLES ABOUT FEDERAL AGENTS BY DATE - PAGE 2

Last month, I received emails from two people I know but who don't know each other: one a close friend and Second Amendment supporter, and the other a regular reader who sends me news items she believes the "liberal media" are willfully suppressing. Each sent me a story link about recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security purchases of huge stockpiles of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets. A Forbes.com column penned by Larry Bell, replete with conspiratorial overtones, suggested that the Obama administration is up-arming itself while trying to disarm the citizenry.

The directions to the alleged brothel told the men that if they saw a house with green awnings, they'd gone too far. But some of them apparently misunderstood; would-be customers have shown up for years at the nearby house in Towson. Despite neighbors' complaints, police say, Di Zhang, 42, continued to operate the brothel from a white Colonial-style suburban home on Joppa Road, advertising on websites until this month, when county police and federal agents moved in. Neighbors said they weren't surprised to learn that Zhang, the operator of Jade Heart Health, had been charged with prostitution and human trafficking.

Federal agents in Baltimore helped lead an operation that this week seized and shut down nearly 700 U.S.-based websites linked to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs as part of an international effort to upend the global online drug trade. The local operation, known as Bitter Pill, was part of an international initiative led by Interpol that spanned 100 countries and confiscated 3.7 million doses of counterfeit medications worth an estimated $10.5 million, according to federal officials.

Targeting human trafficking, federal agents participated in a joint operation with local law enforcement that led to the arrest of 23 men alleged to have solicited sex from undercover officers along U.S. 1 in Jessup. The sting brought agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with officers from local and state police departments. While local law enforcement goes after so-called johns to deter prostitution, their value to federal authorities is as a source of information for cases against human traffickers.

In 1995, Barack Obama released "Dreams From My Father," a compelling memoir full of stories about his life that -- though often not exactly true -- persuaded many people that this young man had a great political future ahead of him. Nearly a decade later, Mr. Obama introduced himself to the country with a stirring speech at the 2004 Democratic convention in which he conceded, "I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story...

Last month's raid on the Patapsco Flea Market in Southwest Baltimore netted $47.3 million worth of counterfeit luxury goods, the largest seizure at a flea market in the United States, federal authorities announced Thursday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations also confiscated $1.5 million in cash, which it described as "suspected criminal proceeds. " Federal officials released new details of the April 22 raid on the bazaar, where authorities say vendors sold counterfeit and pirated goods with the market owner's knowledge.

Imean Shaheed was working last Sunday when federal agents rushed into the Patapsco Flea Market, announced over the loudspeaker that the bazaar was closed for business and shut down vendors selling knockoff Nikes, Louis Vuitton bags and Tiffany & Co. jewelry. "It was like the movies," the 20-year-old Shaheed said Saturday after the Cherry Hill flea market re-opened. Some booths were empty, but the parking lot was full and customers flocked to vendors such as Shaheed who were open for business.

Undercover federal agents rented a booth at Patapsco Flea Market to gain access to its management as part of a 2 1/2 -year sting targeting merchants selling counterfeit and pirated goods - an investigation that resulted in a raid Sunday on the Southwest Baltimore marketplace, according to a search warrant and affidavit released Monday. Capping the intensive investigation into fake brand-name clothes and accessories, as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations confiscated numerous items being sold at the sprawling market.

Vendors at the Patapsco Flea Market have a history of allegedly selling counterfeit and pirated merchandise, according to an affidavit, which outlined the latest accusation that resulted in a raid Sunday by federal Homeland Security Investigations special agents. Capping a 2 1/2-year-long investigation into counterfeit apparel and accessories as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, federal investigators confiscated numerous items being sold there. Federal authorities released few details about the raid, but the affidavit details several undercover operations that found that many of the items sold at the flea market were fake.

A Baltimore-area man will face up to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with a failed terrorist plot to blow up a Catonsville military recruiting center in December 2010. Antonio Benjamin Martinez, 22, who also goes by the name Muhammad Hussain, had also been charged with attempting to murder federal officials, but he pleaded not guilty to that count in a deal with federal prosecutors. His sentencing is set for April 6 in Maryland U.S. District Court.